Why Do Cats Always Land On Their Feet?

Everyone has heard the old adage “cats always land on their feet.” From observation, it appears to be true. If you have ever seen a cat take a tumble, you probably saw it land on its feet. Cats are very nimble! Still, why do cats always land on their feet? What makes this possible?

History begs: Why do cats always land on their feet?

The 1800’s brought a huge rise in the popularity of cats as house pets. Curiosity about the beautiful creatures flourished throughout the Victorian Era. After the first cat show, anybody who was anybody wanted to own a cat.

Cats even caught the attention of the elite scientific community. Many traits of cats would become of scientific interest, but one question was particularly burning- why do cats always land on their feet? Scientists took to a practice known as “cat turning” to find the answer. In doing this, scientists would drop cats from various heights and on various angles to try and see if they could spot the answer. Unfortunately, the scientists back then didn’t have the kind of compassion for animals that most people do today. Hundreds of cats died in these experiments from being thrown from high buildings.

Cats Turn the World of Science Upside Down

Photo Credit: Luan Anh

James Clerk Maxwell was one of the scientists who practiced cat turning. Letters to his wife proclaimed his excitement about the results of his various cat turning experiments. To get a closer look at the answer to this riddle, Maxwell teamed up with a few other scientists and took cat turning to a whole new level.

One of the team members was scientist and early cinematographer named Etienne-Jules Marey. Marey had created a “photographic rifle” in 1882 which would be of assistance in their studies. It was a rifle that had been fitted with lens and the trigger mechanism controlled the exposure of the light on the negatives. With this photographic rifle Marley was able to capture 12 frames per second or have a 1/720th of a second exposure rate. Using Marley’s invention, the team of scientists got to see the falling cat’s motions frame by frame.

Did this series of photographs answer the question “Why do cats always land on their feet?” Well, not exactly. When it was presented by Marey in 1894 to a collection of esteemed scientists at the French Acadèmie of Sciences, there was an uproar. The cat’s ability to turn itself from upside down to right side up without continuing to tumble seemed to defy the Law of Conservation of Angular Momentum (essentially that an object can not start or stop turning without being acted upon by a force). These questions would remain unanswered until 1969.

How a Cat “Defies the Laws of Physics”

How does a cat always land on it’s feet? Well, they don’t ALWAYS land on their feet, but they do more often than not. It’s all in a reflex that cat’s are born with called the righting reflex. Here’s the process:

Marey’s photos of the cat turning experiment from 1894

A cat is dropped from a position with it’s feet up in the air and back toward the ground.

The cat uses both it’s eyes and small mechanisms in it’s ears to determine which way is up and which way is down.

The cat turns it’s head in the direction of “down” and gauges distance to the ground.

The front half of the cat’s body folds inward and turns toward the ground while the back half of the body extends out and remains facing away from the ground. This is made possible by a cat’s very flexible spine.

The back legs quickly turn toward the ground.

The cat’s back arches and all 4 legs extend. At this point if there is enough time during the fall, the cat’s body will relax.

The cat’s body impacts with the ground and the joints bend until the body is touching the ground. The cat’s strong joints absorb the force of the impact.

Scientists can breathe a sigh of relief. As it turns out, the way the cat uses it’s body in halves, is what helps it to satisfy the laws of physics. The front half builds momentum while the back half builds inertia. It all evens out in the end. If you would like to see it in action click here.

When cats fall from higher distances, the shape of the body actually behaves like a parachute, slowing down the cat a bit. Studies done of cats that have fallen from high rises (High Rise Syndrome) show that cats falling from floors 7 and above had a lower risk of death and severe injury than did cats falling from floors 2 – 6. It is hypothesized that the reason cats have better results falling from higher floors is that they have more time for their body to relax and brace for the impact.

25 Comments

kittiesblue
on September 5, 2014 at 9:35 am

Mom had seen this demonstrated in other videos, but the one you shared was exceptional. GiGi was certainly a good humored cat. Thanks for this. Hope you will join us for our Sunday Selfies Blog Hop. XO, Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth and Calista Jo

I am glad you liked it! I thought it was a great video too. Education rocks! I agree – GiGi was a very patient kitty. I don’t think my cats would have put up with any of that.

Actually, what I had planned for Sunday would go great with the Selfie hop! I will do my best to join (I suffer from the stupids sometimes). I will stop by your site right now to see if the link up is up 🙂

You are very right about that. I have seen cats roll off of couches while sleeping too. I believe the cat must be awake and alert in order for the righting reflex to kick in. Luckily, when they fall off of couches, they don’t have far to go.

You are right. Cats don’t ALWAYS land on their feet – just most of the time. The bigger problem with being dropped from very high places is that it doesn’t matter how the cat lands – it’s not the fall that hurts you, it’s the sudden stop. I don’t think that researchers actually drop cats any more. The research done with the high rises was just looking at veterinarian data from cats that had fallen from high rises on their own (as far as the researchers knew). I hate to think about cats being hurt any more too.

Thank you. There is nothing wrong with worrying about your cats’ well being 🙂 That’s what us kitty mommies do. Chances are the cats would have used their righting reflex if they fell and would have been more shaken than hurt. However, cats are occasionally a little off and there is still a chance (particularly if the cat was asleep when it fell) that they could get hurt.

Thank you! It’s true, cats do occasionally land on their butts.This is particularly true when they are sleeping on the edge of a sofa or table and they roll off. You’re not a klutz cat at all 🙂 You’re pawsome! I’m sure that you have seen humans fall on their butts far more often than you have done it yourself.

That is very interesting, thanks for sharing it. The amazing thing about Bella is when she sees herself in a mirror, and thinks its another cat, she hisses puffs up, claws come out and everything. I put the same mirror in front of Max and it doesn’t phase his at all. They both go crazy at reflections though.

Thank you! Mirrors and cats have a very strange relationship. There is actually a psychological principle (the name of which escapes me at the moment) involved in the reaction. There is a test called the “Rouge Test” that is done with small children and animals. A smudge of something is placed on the child or animal’s head while they aren’t paying attention and they are shown an image of themselves in the mirror. If the child or animal recognizes themselves then they will try to touch the smudge on their head, if not then they will ignore it. Humans typically don’t pass this until they are about 18 months old. Only a handful of animals has passed it. Cats have not passed, but it does seem that they learn that a mirror is not another cat over time in most cases (they stop reacting to the mirror).

It’s amazing that cats are born with the ability to allow themselves to land on their feet. It was sad to read the experiments conducted on cats about this topic that harmed them. I even felt bad for the cat in the YouTube video. I know I shouldn’t have because that cat was fine, but I still did.

I think that the cat’s righting reflex is amazing too. There’s no need to deny the way you feel about the experiments. It upsets me too that so many cats were harmed or killed. The cat in the video was obviously treated with much more respect than the cats long ago, but it is still hard to watch. Poor kitty. It did give us an opportunity to see just how amazing cats are though.

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